Happy Thanksgiving

Made it to Orlando without incident on Tuesday but many didn’t have the same fortune. The rain contributed to plenty of accidents along I-75 including two that involved 5-6 vehicles each. No one seems to know how to drive when it rains.

My brother drove down from Cleveland to visit his two sons and play a bit of golf. Our Thanksgiving was celebrated yesterday. His youngest is a chef for Disney and today, toiling in the kitchen is mandatory.

All in The Family

Rebirth: That hard drive that went south must have had plenty of bad sectors along with the eventual mechanical failure. The new one does everything much faster.

LPGA Tour Championship Round Three

My player is Stephanie Louden

Finished the last four holes of our second round after a small fog delay. As it turned out, we needed to shoot one under but came up short. I’m off to Orlando then Q-School looking for work.

LPGA Tour Championship – Round Two and A Half

My player is Stephanie Louden

Played fourteen holes. Need a couple birdies tomorrow morning.

Perfect weather brought out the gallery. Hope it peaks the interest of potential sponsors.

LPGA blood drive: Unfortunately, the voracious skeeters were the recipients. It was like someone rang the dinner bell at 4:45.

Boom to bust: Anyone want to buy a golf course? Read all about it here.

Down in the dumps? Get your butt into the gym. - Scientists have known for some time that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells … -

LPGA Tour Championship – Wash Out!

My player is Stephanie Louden

We were all at the course ready to tee it up when word came down that it was unplayable. An update was scheduled for 9:30 which turned out to be that another update would be at 1:30. No play today was the final call. We resume at 8 AM mañana with a Monday finish.

Oh Oh! That Monday finish will really put the kibosh on travel plans for whoever flew here. Some folks have checked into changing flights only to find that no seats are available until Thursday! One-way car rentals are being looked at.

Good save: Not for par, or any other score for that matter. It was for Katherine Hull not falling into the water from the bridge between number 10 and 11. While riding in this morning, after the decision was made that play was delayed, a floppy-hat, donned by a volunteer, flew off and into the lake. Katherine went to the rescue but it was just a tad too far away. She eventfully reached the floater by hanging off the side and being held by one leg. Unfortunately, no pics are available.

Women in Distress: Check out this article in The Wall Street Journal.

A few LPGA shrimp on the barbie? Almost. Heard that next season’s TV contract may have been in jeopardy, due to the lack of tournaments, so making the Australian events at the beginning of the year official LPGA tournaments was explored. Didn’t need them after all but it would have been a good move anyway. Not in the LET’s estimation I bet.

FYI: You can follow lifeontour on Twitter. What else would it be? Here’s a sample.

LPGA Tour Championship Round Two

My player is Stephanie Louden

For once, the predicted “hoser” was right on the money  but play was only delayed til 1:00 PM. Our original time was 12:30 so we never teed it up.

Special guest: Had one during our practice round on Tuesday. If you haven’t seen this article on lpga.com, it’s worth a look.

Sage advice: During play that day, Stacy Lewis mentioned that she and a few others were scheduled to take some roping and cow milking lessons. My only advice was on the latter. “Just make sure it’s a cow and not a bull.”

LPGA Tour Championship – Round One

My player is Stephanie Louden

The wind didn’t pick up until we turned but couldn’t take advantage. Shot three over.

A little dab will do ya: The bugs can be ferocious down here and the local remedy (everyone seems to have a favorite) is said to be vanilla extract. A bottle was on the first tee and I dabbed a few drops about my neck. Didn’t work but that jug of “OFF” Steph brought along sure did. Wanted a cookie all day though.

Asleep at the wheel: Again! After the Asian events, one of the caddies checked his player’s status on the  money list and noticed they lost two spots even though the two bodies that passed them earned unofficial money and it should not have been counted. He emailed the powers that be in the LPGA and was thanked for his diligence and a correction was made. How about the LPGA’s diligence? They screwed up the priority list in midseason and played catch-up the rest of the year.

Never saw it comin’? As of a week ago, an article in GolfWeek proclaimed the new venue of the Sybase event as Essex County C.C. and now, Sybase isn’t even on the schedule. ShopRite has been a hefty contributor into the Sybase purse but it looks as if they may have blindsided by their co-host by deciding to go it alone and reinitiate its own event in Atlantic City. Will it be a case of lose one, gain one? Don’t know. Maybe someone else will come onboard to pull this one out.

Wishin’ and hopin’: Looks as if that new event at Tega Cay, I touted awhile back, may be wishful thinking. It’s not on the schedule and nothing new has been reported. Could be a case of “talk about it, and they may come”.

Monday maybe: A “real hoser” is predicted for tomorrow according to TWC so a finish into next week may be a possibility.

Get the picture? The 2010 schedule still looks like one of my favorite snacks and the majority of events are outside the bounds of the US.

2010 LPGA Schedule

LPGA Tour Championship – Pro-Am Day

My player is Stephanie Louden

Getting the grips changed, three hours of practice and lunch at Quiznos completed my day. Steph stuck around for some pitching practice but I was given the rest of the afternoon off.

First time time I can remember: Nine holes of practice was permitted after the pro-am. They only had enough players for the morning wave.

Words of wisdom: “If you suck, pick up.” I was told this is the pro-am advice Stuart Appleby (or was it Robert Allenby?) gives to his group. Of course, everyone plays their own ball.

LPGA Championship: Wegmans will be the presenting sponsor for one year only I understand. I guess our annual bowling tournament – The Donna-Wanna Bowl – in Rochester will be a Major also. Should bring in a quality field. One day, we’re going to get the rules officials to participate.

Why start now? Following the rules that is. B. J. was out yesterday charting the greens with Michelle’s caddie. Don’t think he can do that but who’s to call him on it?

LPGA Tour Championship Tuesday

My player is Stephanie Louden

Touched ‘em all today, with a continuation of a northerly wind, making the course play just the opposite as it was designed. It’s supposed to turn around so all this practice was worth next to butkis.

We’re baaaack: If you haven’t heard by now, the Shoprite Classic has returned to the schedule for 2010.

Quote of the week: “You can’t get into Springfield but you can get into the Tour Championship.” This, after reflecting on how far down the money list they had to go to fill the field.

LPGA Tour Championship – Houston TX 2009

My player is Stephanie Louden

A line of t-storms came through around daybreak accompanied by a howling wind which is still blowing as I write this. This did not deter us in the least so we played an early nine with Steph’s teacher in tow. We picked the backside and the first two par fours played like fives. Plenty of short game work as a result.

What’s she smiling about?

See ya here: Heard that 55,000 advance tickets have been sold.

What a rip-off! Paid $25+tax for the yardage book in the pro shop yesterday. Now they’re being sold in the caddie area for $20. I know the economy is in the dumper but why take it out on us?

Everything we need to know… but only if you are familiar with the secret caddie handshake. Kind a like the Freemasons, only classier.

What’s wrong with this picture?

If you really have to go, you can’t go here.

You thought I forgot? Congrats to our new savior, Michelle Wie. After years of parental interference, a plethora of caddie changes, bad drops, an injured wrist (even though she wasn’t sure which one it was) and unsigned scorecards, she has finally broken through for her first win. I truly believe her participation in The Solheim Cup, along with the positive influence of her teammates, did more than all the coaching, overbearing course management and associated mumbo-jumbo in getting that monkey off her back. Watch out folks, there’s a new sheriff in town.

The Road To Recovery

If it hasn’t happened yet, it will. The other day, while waiting out the hurricane in Tallahassee, Rick was playing Hearts on my laptop and queried as to what that clicking noise was? I walked over and and heard the unmistakable chatter of a hard drive self-destructing. Seconds later, it was toast. No worries on the data recovery though. I’ backup to an external hard drive regularly and use Carbonite Online Backup. More on that later. Now what?

- For example, for drives older than 2 years, Google reports seeing about a 7% failure rate per year. Put another way, one out of ever 14 drives will fail within a year. - Here’s the full article.

A course of action was next to consider. See if I can find a replacement drive of go computer shopping were my only choices. Given the cost, I opted for the former. No way was I going to order one online, if possible, and suffer through the withdrawal systems of a byte-free environment, so it was on to plan “B”. As I was diving to Houston, it hit me. There was a good possibility that a Fry’s Electronics – a massive electronics super-store which has just about everything – was in the “Space City” so I used the voice dialing function on my phone to contact Google Info 411. It’s free service that’s hard to beat. Got a listing of three locations so I punched one up on my GPS and hoped for the best.

Turned out I was lucky on two counts. My drive just slides out after removing one screw and Fry’s had just what was needed. For sixty bucks, I doubled the capacity and installed it in minutes. Next was the data and application recovery. It was nearing the lunch hour so a restore/putting on the feedbag combo would be the perfect scenario. I wondered if my favorite coffee house, Panera Bread, was in the neighborhood so it was back to the GPS. Voila!  Only eight miles away. So far, I was on a roll. Just beat the noontime rush from the hospital across the road and set up next to the window. It was marathon session of restoration but, interlaced between copious amount of java (switched to decaf eventually) and a Smokehouse Turkey Panini, most of the work was complete in a few hours. Back online without skipping a beat I was.

By the way, if you don’t have the restore disks make them. There usually is an option in the list of programs. Even if you do have them, make copies. Systems using Vista need DVD’s. Too big for CD’s.

Now, back to Carbonite. In the tech industry, it is widely said that two copies of anything is not really a true backup especially if they reside in the same location. A few years back, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola found this out the hard way, losing fifteen years data during a burglary. They took his laptop and backup drive! It’s not just theft but a natural disaster such as flood or fire has the same result. Don’t let this happen to you. Think about all the irreplaceable pictures, video, tax data or business related info you may have at risk. Either make a third copy and get it offsite or use an online backup service. If you do choose Carbonite, I ask a favor of you. Let me know and I’ll send you an invitation so sign-up. If you do, I can earn a couple free months on my service. You then, can do the same. Thanks.